Solutions to current and future problems on natural and constructed shorelines, eastern Baltic Sea (SolidShore)

About this project

<p><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">The coast and the nearshore is a resource of extremely high value to the Baltic States and a location of major conflict of interests by different user groups. It is an important ecosystem that supports human wellbeing, incl. providing food and recreational opportunities. It also has an important commercial function, supporting trade, the movement of people, and recreation through the beaches, ports and marinas. It is the buffer between land and sea, with coastal erosion and integrity of the nearshore ecosystem being a particular concern.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">This research brings together specialists from Tallinn University of Technology, Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Klaipeda University and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, each with their own internationally recognized expertise, to provide solutions to the current and future problems that already and will affect how we use coastal resources.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">The major source of energy to the nearshore are waves. Many of the problems we experience (such as erosion and port siltation) relate to how sediment (mainly gravel, sand and mud) is moved. Much current knowledge comes from open ocean and cannot be directly applied to very different conditions of the Baltic Sea. This research will provide environmentally friendly solutions to coastal problems in ways that very specifically account for the wave, water level and sediment conditions in the eastern Baltic Sea and are transferable for all similar water bodies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">This is accomplished using i) data and knowledge that we currently have to provide much better and higher resolution knowledge about waves than are presently available, ii) by measuring sediment transport using novel sensors developed at TalTech, iii) by applying the new knowledge to examine how the interactions of waves and sediment impact the natural shores and coastal structures, and iv) provide tools so that coastal managers can make use of the knowledge produced to estimate how vulnerable are single coastal sections.</span></span></p>

Bilateral cooperation results

While the Baltic partners have enough competence in phase-averaged wave models, wave climate and related extremes, much of the properties of local hydrodynamic loads is still not resolved by these methods. The specific and irreplaceable in the Baltic States contribution of the donor project partner NTNU addressed calculations of local wave loads in high resolution. NTNU provided specific competence in high-resolution simulations of wave propagation, breaking, reflection, loads to the seabed and overtopping, using detailed 3D wave models for a selection of beaches and specific infrastructure (small harbors, groins, local revetments). Together with high-resolution measurements, doing so has potential to lead to a substantial progress in understanding sediment entrainment into transport, transport itself and local loads to various structures, included (re)calculations of the local redistribution of sediment around. The collaboration led to massive improvement of knowledge, not achievable by any of the single teams, about the functioning of the system of sedimentary shores of the eastern Baltic Sea, properties of extreme hydrodynamic loads in the area in terms of waves (both in local, country-wide and regional context), wave climate, wave set-up, wave-shore interaction, structural properties of sedimentary systems, and the options and needs for decision support systems in the entire region. These achievements have a number of direct applications (such as specification of ship properties based on multi-point recordings of ship wave presented to the United Nations; see Introducing the research to the public, or in-depth understanding of specific features of coastal processes in the Baltic Sea). The joint use of wave simulations from the basin scale down to ~1 m in the harbor interior made it possible to develop optimal solutions for a small harbor in an extremely complicated wave environment as a joint effort of the donor and Taltech teams.

Project partners

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology Donor project partner· Norway
• Klaipeda University Project partner· Lithuania
• Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology Project partner· Latvia